As per my About Me section, when I started this blog, the main reason is, if I am honest is that I was fed up of just going with the flow of what had become the norm in a lot of Christendom and wanted to get things off my chest. Most christians that I knew (including me) had swallowed the health and wealth prosperity gospel. Watching some of the preachers on TBN and God TV such as Creflo Dollar and Benny Hinn without REALLY lining up what they said with correct interpretation of scripture. Some of these (and our) pastors were twisting scripture but because it was the norm, we were deceived into thinking that because everyone was saying it and because these were respected leaders, it must be true.

My message to you is this. Examine your motives for staying where you are. Are you TRULY being fed and growing spriritually or are you suffering spritually and just staying because of friends or because of loyalty to your church and/or your pastor even though they may not be preaching the gospel or may not be righly dividing scripture? I was in that position once when I stayed out of loyalty, not because of a longing for correct use of scripture. I really depended on ‘Christian’ TV for my food. Obviously, each case will be different and it maybe that some pastors are approachable with your concerns and will seriously listen to you. In my own personal experience though, those occasions are rare. Click here and here for reasons why you should or shouldnt leave your church and please get some wise godly counsel but please don’t stay out of loyalty alone

UPDATE: When I started to write this post it was basically about what I have stated above and then I came across a few things this week which made me realise that blind loyalty comes in different forms. First check out the video below of Lexi interviewing Bishop Oliver Clyde Allen and First Gentleman (thats right, not Lady but Gentleman) Rashad. This is an example of what happens when people hold a low view of scripture and hold their opinions higher.

The people are all willing to ignore the explicit commands of scripture to justify their sins and you can see how their loyalty to the ‘bishop’ is as a result of this. Now I have no problems with people struggling with their sins, no matter what form it takes, whether it be homosexual sins or hetrosexual sins, but I do have a problem when people try to justify it as if God has given it the green light. NEWSFLASH: It is NOT OK.

24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:24-27)

Then today I came across this news story on Sky News

At least six people have dies in Britain after being told they had been healed of HIV and could stop taking their medication, Sky News has discovered

There is evidence evangelical churches in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow are claiming to cure HIV through God.

To tell an HIV sufferer that they do not need to take their medication anymore is nothing less than evil and deceptive (see my post Derren Brown: Miracles for Sale). Now this church follows the false teacher T B Joshua and I do not have time to go into this man but you can google his name. Many people follow this man blindly as if he can do no wrong without lining up what he says with scripture

When peoples lives are being wrecked by ministries like this, I will not stay silent and will sound the alarm. Who knows? It may save a life

If you have watched Christian TV for sometime and attended various church healing crusades and meetings, you will know that ‘healings’ such as below have become the norm.

Have you ever been supicious of these practices? Well you should be. This week on TV here in the UK, ‘Derren Brown: Miracles For Sale’ was aired. This was the advertisement for the program.

As per Channel 4, the documentary saw….

…Derren go undercover to investigate the reality behind the faith healing phenomenon, in America, and the belief in faith-inspiring miraculous recoveries.

With the cameras in hot pursuit, Derren undergoes his toughest project yet, going in search of an unsuspecting member of the British public prepared to adopt the guise of a Pastor and miracle worker. His chosen one is then tasked with six months in which to learn the trade and flourish across the pond as a convincing Pastor.

The final phase of the volunteer’s extraordinary challenge will see them attempt to perform faith healing miracles live in Texas – will Derren’s new recruit be accepted as a faith healer or cast away as fake healer? Is the belief in divine intervention really justified or will Derren expose the industry as one giant hoax?

On his first TV pursuit into faith healing, Derren says ‘You are about to see a world where greed and deceit raise their ugly heads, where lives have been needlessly lost and where hope, the most precious gift of all is pedalled at a price’.

An example of a life that has ‘been needlessly lost’ can be seen below

For those of you who are not familiar with Derren Brown, click here for more information. Even though none of this was a surprise to me, the program approached this subject from another angle and to be honest, the world did the job that the church should have done ages ago in speaking out against these charlatans. Derren basically trained a scuba diver to become a fake faith healer called ‘James Collins’ (initials J.C.). He was taught (with some help of others including Christians including those from the Trinity Foundation) all the ‘tricks of the trade’ and even though they used deception to do this project, I for one was glad that this practice was exposed. Not suprisingly, on Facebook and Twitter, people were condemning Derren for being wrong but some of these are the same people who will no doubtedly defend the likes of Benny Hinn and Todd Bentley and wouldnt call them evil. Oh the irony.

To see ‘James Collins’ in action using the techniques that he learnt, look at the videos below

As you can see , ‘Pastor James’ was very convincing. In preparation for this exposure, they even set up a fake website called Gifts Of the Spirit Minsitry which you can visit here.

Those who prey on the vulnerable and the desperate are not just wrong, they are down right evil especially when they con people out of their money and encourage some to throw away their medicine with some having fatal consequences. Derren was interviewed about why he made the program which you can read here and I have to say that I agree with his motives.

Even though the videos below are in the How False Prophets Work post, I thought it was worth repeating them here to see how these guys work and manipulate people for their money. There is nothing new under the sun.

One post that I definitely will recommend is A Call for Discernment by Justin Peters who addresses this in his videos. Now let me make it clear, I personally believe that God can and does heal people today but he does this in his sovereignty and not how these tricksters do it. Some people get healed but some people never get healed.

So in conclusion, do not just swallow anything that is fed to you on TV or by any preacher (even your favorite ones) but like the Bereans in Acts 17:11, check the scriptures to see if it lines up and if it doesnt, reject it.

For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect–if that were possible. (Matthew 24:24)

Have you ever been a sucker and put your name on the mailing list of some of these so called preachers who are just after your money after which yo then get diluded with various mail asking for money or maybe your pastor just begs for it every Sunday in the guise of , if you give, you will be blessed. Courtesy of the FBI aka Preacher Bureau of Investigations, I challenge you to send this letter or even better, give it to them direct and see if they practice what they preach. I think I know what the response will be.

Dear Mr. Pastor Dude

Please do not send me another letter requesting that I support your ministries efforts around the world. I am not sure if you are aware of it or not but there exist ministry opportunities right here in (insert your City here) that are being ignored while you fly over us in order to get to (insert the City here).

Since you believe in sowing and reaping so much then why not exercise your supernatural faith by sowing a seed into my light bill or mortgage? My mortgage is £989, and according to your preaching on sowing, if you pay it then you (Mr. Preacher Dude) can expect a 100 fold blessing from God.

Since you preach giving then I think it will be an awesome display of your faith in what you’re preaching if you take this opportunity and pay my mortgage today! Don’t sit there in fear Mr. Pastor Dude, God is waiting on you to apply your faith with this seed offering as you witness the power of sowing a seed.

And if you sow this seed today into my mortgage I will also add you to my list of preachers who have signed up to be a covenant partner with my Child Support Payments.

Covenant preachers will receive a special message from me each month highlighting how my bills are getting paid because of their faith. So today Mr. Pastor Dude, I am asking you to do your part and make sure the storehouse is full as according to Malachi 3:10 which ask that we bring all of the tithes into the storehouse.

Try God Mr. Pastor and see if he will open up a window and pour you out a blessing because you have sowed your seed in fertile ground, which just happens to be my bills.

Back in 2009, it was revealed that the former home secretary here in the UK, Jacqui Smith had claimed expenses for pornographic films that her husband had watched. As a result Mrs Smith resigned from her position because of the damage it would have to the Labour Party if she remained in office.

On 20 April 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, operated by BP. Eleven people were killed in the blast and oil began to leak from the ocean floor at a rate variously estimated to be between 5,000 and 100,000 barrels per day. As a result, chief executive, Tony Hayward eventually resigned from his post as he knew that with all the bad press, it would not be good for him to continue in his role because it would add to the damage of BP’s already bad reputation.

Does that mean that Jacqui Smith they should never ever work for the Labour Party again in any shape or form or that Tony Haywards should never work in BP again? No it doesn’t mean that at all but it does mean that they should not be in a prominent leadership role because the name of the Labour Party or BP will be at stake.

The world can see the sense in the decision to step down for the greater good of a political party or a company’s name. However, when it comes to christianity and some pastors, the name of Christ is not precious enough for them to take a back seat because they seem to have their own agenda and feel that, for whatever reason, they must come back up to the front and carry on as normal. So we have examples of the divorces of Juanita Bynum and Thomas weeks, Paula and Randy White, Benny and Suzanne Hinn, all with no biblical basis and some of those mentioned being divorced twice. Then we have the more serious controversies such as Ted Haggard having a sexual encounter with Mike Jones and receiving drugs from him and Pastor Goodman back in 2004 who “was jailed for three and a half years for sex attacks on a woman worshipper. He was also jailed for perverting the course of justice and an attempted sex assault on a 19-year-old woman. He had been accused of preying on four women at the Victory Christian Centre”. However he is back in the pulpit at the now Victory 2 Victory Christan Church. I hope that Pastor Albert Odulele doesn’t hope to go back into the pulpit in a few years time. John Macarthur says this about the problem:

It has always saddened me over the years as I’ve watched church leaders bring a reproach on the church of Jesus Christ. What’s shocking to me is how frequently Christian leaders sin grossly, then step back into leadership almost as soon as the publicity dies away.

Some time ago I received a CD that disturbed me greatly. It was a recording of the recommissioning service of a pastor who had made national news by confessing to an adulterous affair. After little more than a year of “counseling and rehabilitation,” this man was returning to public ministry with his church’s blessing.

That is happening everywhere. Restoration teams–equipped with manuals to instruct the church on how to reinstate their fallen pastor–wait like tow-truck drivers on the side of the highway, anticipating the next leadership “accident”. Our church has received inquiries wondering if we have written guidelines or a workbook to help restore fallen pastors to leadership. Many no doubt expect that a church the size of ours would have a systematic rehabilitation program for sinning leaders.

Gross sin among Christian leaders is a signal that something is seriously wrong with the church. But an even greater problem is the lowering of standards to accommodate a leader’s sin. That the church is so eager to bring these men back into leadership is a symptom of rottenness at the core.

Some have claimed that a leader’s failure makes him more effective in shepherding fallen people. That is ludicrous. Should we drag the bottom of sin’s cesspool for the most heinous sinners to lead the church? Are they better able to understand the sinner? Certainly not! Our pattern for ministry is the sinless Son of God. The church is to be like Him and her leaders are to be our models of Christlikeness.

We must recognize that leadership in the church cannot be regarded lightly. The foremost requirement of a church leader is that he be above reproach (1 Timothy 3:2, 10; Titus 1:7). That is a difficult prerequisite, and not everyone can meet it.

There are some sins that irreparably shatter a man’s reputation and disqualify him from a ministry of leadership forever. Even Paul, man of God that he was, said he feared such a possibility. In 1 Corinthians 9:27 he says, “I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”

When referring to his body, Paul obviously had sexual immorality in view. In 1 Corinthians 6:18 he describes it as a sin against one’s own body–sexual sin is in its own category. Certainly it disqualifies a man from church leadership since he permanently forfeits a blameless reputation as a one-woman man (Proverbs 6:33; 1 Timothy 3:2).

Where did we get the idea that a year’s leave of absence and some counseling can restore integrity to someone who has squandered his reputation and destroyed people’s trust? Certainly not from the Bible. Trust forfeited is not so easily regained. Once purity is sacrificed, the ability to lead by example is lost forever. As my friend Chuck Swindoll once commented when referring to this issue–it takes only one pin to burst a balloon.

What about forgiveness? Shouldn’t we be eager to restore our fallen brethren? To fellowship, yes. But not to leadership. It is not an act of love to return a disqualified man to public ministry; it is an act of disobedience.

By all means we should be forgiving. But we cannot erase the consequences of sin. I am not advocating that we “shoot our wounded.” I’m simply saying that we shouldn’t rush them back to the front lines, and we should not put them in charge of other soldiers. The church should do everything possible to minister to those who have sinned and repented. But that does not include restoring the mantle of leadership to a man who has disqualified himself and forfeited the right to lead. Doing so is unbiblical and lowers the standard God has set.

So why is the contemporary church so eager to be tolerant? I’m certain a major reason is the sin and unbelief that pervade the church. If casual Christians can lower the expectations on their leadership, they will be much more comfortable with their own sin. With lower moral standards, the church becomes more tolerant of sin and less tolerant of holiness. The “sinner-friendly” church is intolerable to God–that is a frightening condition.

Conservative Christians have for most of the previous century focused on the battle for doctrinal purity. And that is good. But we are losing the battle for moral purity. Some of the worst defeats have occurred among our more visible leaders. The church cannot lower the standard to accommodate them. We should hold it higher so we can regain purity. If we lose here, we have utterly failed, no matter how orthodox our confession of faith. We can’t win if we compromise the biblical standard of moral purity.

What should you do in the current crisis? Pray for your church’s leaders. Keep them accountable. Encourage them. Let them know you are following their godly example. Understand that they are not perfect, but continue nonetheless to call them to the highest level of godliness and purity. The church must have leaders who are genuinely above reproach. Anything less is an abomination.

Many Christians will be throwing out the ‘judge not’ line and will want to pretend that this stuff doesnt happen in Christendom but as Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32). Adversely, that means that if you dont know the truth (or chose not to) , then you will be kept in bondage. Hopefully this will help people to have their eyes opened and say goodbye to the untouchable preachers.

As my friend says, my prayers are with his victims and not his reputation.

In the UK, unfortunately there are many African churches and ‘Pastors’ who subscribe to the health and wealth prosperity message. It is also popular in Africa itself because it preys on the poor and the desperate who will do anything to get out of their situation, even if that means sowing a seed to get them out of debt but in reality puts them more into debt.

Please listen to this video as it is a refreshing breathe of fresh air to hear something that is not only an African problem but a church problem

Are you frustrated that the Lord has not answered your prayers for the breakthroughs and divine favour which you seek?

Have you faithfully tithe but find that the “windows of heaven blessings” continue to elude you?

Have you diligently sown your seeds into “good soil” and confessed daily but you are still not receiving a harvest?

Do you “give to God” faithfully but feel like the Lord has abandoned you as you are not receiving anything in return?

If any of these questions apply to you then I have good news for you. The reason why you are feeling frustrated and disappointed is because you have been fed a false gospel. God is not man that He should lie so do not be disappointed in God. God did not make the above promises to you – the man in the pulpit did. The man in the pulpit who presents himself as God’s mouthpiece is the lier and I will demonstrate as I examine those questions one by one.

Firstly, the Lord did not promise you “breakthroughs” or divine favour, man did. The Lord gave you divine favour when He sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for you and I so that we may obtain mercy – this is Grace, which is divine favour. Man however changed the meaning of divine favour to mean that you can receive “supernatural abundance” in earthly things and sup with kings, which the Lord did not promise you. To obtain true divine favour therefore all you need to do is seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all else shall be added unto you. This does not mean that you will receive all the material desires of your heart but the Lord promises to meet your needs. You should also remember that before you ask, the Lord already knows what you need. In much the same way a parent takes care of a young child without the child needing to ask the parent for anything so too the Father will take care of His children. What “breakthroughs” do you seek therefore?

Paying your tithes and expecting the “windows of heaven blessings” is foolhardy to say the least and no amount of “confessing” will bring those benefits to you. Under the New Covenant a Christian is NOT required to tithe and the Lord will not honour your tithe according to Mal 3:10 because that scripture was not spoken to the church but to Israel under the Old Covenant. Under the Covenant Israel were required to give a tithe not because this would ensure God’s blessings but they were required to give it because the Lord had blessed them. In this sense the tithe was like a tax that the Lord required to sustain the Levites, who had no inheritance in the Promise Land. As such you do not pay taxes to ensure future income but rather you pay it because you already have an income and because it is required by Law. If you are therefore paying the tithe because you think that this will compel the Lord to do something extra for you then you are already giving it with the wrong motives. The Lord is not a debtor to any man – so if you pay the tithe thinking that the Lord owes you something then you have been deceived. In the first place the tithing practice today is a violation of God’s Law – it is therefore the man that collected the tithe from you that owes you, not God.

Some preachers within the Word of Faith movement will tell you that the Kingdom of God operates on the “principle” of sowing and reaping. I contend however that this is not the case. Indeed the analogy of sowing and reaping is often used to describe the Kingdom of God or certain aspects of it but the Kingdom of God is not reactive. It doesn’t depend on us doing something but it is rather all about the sovereign Will of the Father. The Kingdom of God is about salvation which comes by Grace. Grace is God’s sovereign will to lay down the life of His Son, Jesus Christ, to save us from our sins (John 3:16). It was because God first loved us and not that we did something to appease God in order to earn His love, why He gave us this FREE gift. The Lord does not need you to “sow” therefore in order for you to receive a “harvest” from Him. Did Christ not say, “Does the rain not fall upon the just and the unjust?” What did the unjust do to deserve rain from God? Absolutely nothing! Yet even his harvest is being multiplied because of the rain. The following verses which Jesus spake should also be considered:

26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Since the Lord did not ask you to sow therefore He does not need to honour your sowing with a harvest. You have therefore sown in vain because you were deceived – you have given your money to a man who lied to you instead of exercising due diligence and being a good steward of what the Lord had already given you.

Lastly, this idea of “giving to God” is perhaps one of the biggest misnomers in the church. How does giving some money to the offering plate or bucket constitute giving to God? Indeed when you give money to church you are contributing to financing the activities of the church but the Lord is not getting a single penny of that money. Man it is that collects the money and man it is that disburses these monies according to how they see fit. The Lord does not need your money, moreover, this idea that money is needed to finance the gospel is simply not true. The Lord Himself was the first pastor and minister of the Gospel yet He did not collect tithes and offerings and other monies to finance the Gospel He came to establish. He did not build a church and set up an administrative structure to which money would flow into. Yet today we are being told that the Gospel cannot go forth without money. This is somewhat ironic when we consider that Jesus called the Twelve and sent them out and specifically told them not to take money or food with them. On their return the Lord asked them if they lacked anything when they went out to deliver the gospel to the Lost Sheep and their response was no. Indeed money is needed to sustain people but we have subscribed to the Roman church model in creating the cash machines we call church today, and financing these cash machines are seen as tantamount to financing the Gospel. The reason why you might not be receiving the blessing therefore is that you mistakenly think that by giving to church you are giving to God and as such the Lord owes you something. You would be more blessed however if you gave to the poor and needy as shown in the following scriptures (noting that it is more blessed to give than to receive, Acts 20:35):

17He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.( Prov 19)

27He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse. (Prov 28)